GUEST EDITORIAL: Congress needs to develop, share sense of urgency

Congress got back from its Presidents Day recess Feb. 25 and immediately got down to the pressing business at the top of its calendar.

The House was to spend the next few days reauthorizing and amending the Violence Against Women Act. The Senate was to confirm a judicial nominee and then get down to the contentious but more or less foreordained confirmation of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense.

And March 1 the dreaded "sequester" automatically went into effect. Depending on which party is doing the talking, the cuts will range from inconvenient and mildly annoying to deeply painful and economically damaging.

Whatever.

Members of both parties have spent more time allocating blame than searching for solutions.

Congress showed no sense of urgency in dealing with the situation because the public has yet to feel the impact of the sequester - and may not until the end of March or April.

The Obama administration has predicted dire consequences from the cuts: weakened military, long waits at airports, large furloughs of government employees, layoffs of food safety inspectors, curtailed hours at national parks.

The administration even issued fact sheets for all 50 states and the District of Columbia highlighting the impact of the cuts. According to the White House, Tennessee stands to lose $14.8 million in primary and secondary education funds, $2.1 million in environmental cleanup funds, more than $1 million for meal assistance for seniors and much more. Up to 1,000 workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory might end up furloughed for at least six months.

But Tennessee's Republicans in Congress say the effect won't be so dramatic and blamed the Obama administration for a lack of leadership.

Some Republicans favored legislation that would replace the across-the-board cuts with targeted ones, leaving it up to the White House to make the unpopular choices of which programs get cut.

However, Congress faces a very real, very serious deadline on March 27. That's when a temporary, six-month funding measure for the federal government expires. It was passed last September when Congress couldn't agree on a budget or pass the individual funding bills for government departments.

Unless Congress shows a little more urgency about dealing with that problem, the government really will shut down, enraging the heretofore-apathetic public.